Hallam Football Club

The birth of football

I'm going to talk about the really old variants of football that once played in China and Japan 2000 years ago.

In the Han Dynasty the Chinese military did a skill building exercise which involved players kicking a ball in a small net. In Japan evidence suggests a ball kicking game was played in Kyoto. Greeks and Romans both played a game similar to modern day football (or for the Americans soccer). Although in this version it was played upto 27 a side it was quite like the modern day game. The Mexicans also played

Hallam themselves

Hallam cricket club were born in 1804 when the landlord of the Plough Inn agreed to lend one his fields for cricket matches thus Hallam cricket club was formed. By 1850 it was so successful it had 300 members. Sheffield Club had been formed in 1857 and so many cricketers were familiar with team football. The requirement for a football club led to the formation of Hallam in 1860. A challenge match between Sheffield and Hallam took place in Boxing Day of that year. Hallam FC's founder and captain John Charles Shaw became president of the Sheffield FA which organised matches to the locally preferred rules for its growing number of clubs. Their were two sets of rules the preferred and nationally accepted rules. John Shaw worked with Charles Alcock of the Football Association in London. John Shaw was captain of Hallam and Charles Alcock captain of Sheffield Club. 

The Youdan Cup

The first ever organised tournament took place in 1867 (The year Sheffield Wednesday were formed) the Youdan Cup organised by local theatre owner Thomas Youdan. Twelve clubs from Sheffield joined in Broomhall, Fir Vale, Garrick, Hallam, Mackenzie, Mechanics, Milton, Norfolk, Norton, Pitsmoor, Wellington. The only big name missing from the list was the venerable old (nearly 10 years old) Sheffield Club, who were still refusing to play local matches.

Here is a table of results

Here is a diagram of a "rouge" http://www.btinternet.com/~a.drake/owls/early/rouge.htm

I will be updating this site with info on the History of football which started in Sheffield and Hallam FC